At Sophie’s Gallery and Gift Shop in downtown El Cajon, all that glitters is all over the place. In this sunny space where developmentally disabled adults make and sell their art, there are trays of onyx, jade and turquoise beads on the work tables. Tiger’s-eye necklaces light up the display cases. Bejeweled wind chimes dangle from the ceiling.

And in the middle of these bright and shiny objects is volunteer jewelry instructor Barbie Bates, an accidental gem who found the perfect setting where she least expected it.

“I was so scared when they asked me to take over teaching this class, because I had never done anything like this at all,” Bates said as she organized trays for her Tuesday morning class. “The nice thing about this is that anyone can string beads. You can come in with no skills whatsoever and then you can put out a masterpiece. And they do.”

Sophie’s Gallery is the artistic offspring of St. Madeleine Sophie’s Center, an El Cajon-based nonprofit whose programs include a therapeutic organic garden and worm farm, adaptive computer labs, speech therapy and sign language, music therapy and a work-activity program.

St. Madeleine Sophie’s serves nearly 400 people with developmental disabilities ranging from Down syndrome and autism to epilepsy and cerebral palsy. One of those people is 30-year-old Shauna Davis, enthusiastic dishwasher, talented jewelry designer and the reason Barbie Bates began volunteering at Sophie’s Gallery four years ago.

Shauna is Bates’ daughter, and she is developmentally delayed with mild cerebral palsy. After seeing what St. Madeleine Sophie’s did for Shauna — including helping her earn her food-handling license — Bates decided it was time to do something in return.

The native San Diegan started out with busy work at the gallery, which she did with so much enthusiasm and attention to detail that gallery administrator Wendy Morris asked Bates to give the paid jewelry instructor a hand. When the instructor left a few months later, Morris asked Bates to take over, and a new attitude took root. Whatever Bates has done for the people of Sophie’s Gallery, the people have returned with interest.

“I have to give a lot of credit to Wendy. She knew I could do this, even if I didn’t,” said the 51-year-old Bates, a high school dropout who graduated from the Foothills Adult Center in 1994 and got an associate degree in computer information systems from Cuyamaca College five years later.

Now, the woman who had no interest in art and no experience in anything remotely crafty teaches four jewelry-making classes a week. When she isn’t working at Ed Hanson’s Muffler Service in Spring Valley, Bates watches YouTube videos to learn new jewelry-making techniques. She trolls the Web and the mall for design ideas, haunts eBay and local retailers for unusual beads, and convinces friends, family members and business owners to donate money or give her discounts on supplies.